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2019 Toronto Maple Leafs Offseason Discussion

Who will captain the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2019?

  • William Nylander

    Votes: 20 60.6%

  • John Tavares

    Votes: 3 9.1%

  • Morgan Rielly

    Votes: 6 18.2%

  • Mitch Marner

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No one

    Votes: 4 12.1%
  • Total voters
    33
CarltonTheBear said:
Gardiner's spoken out quite a few times about how his preference is the left side.
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If Gardiner really wants to come back, and that is of course still an if, then I think you'd have to make some sort of flexibility in what side he plays part of the discussion there.
 
Nik the Trik said:
If Gardiner really wants to come back, and that is of course still an if, then I think you'd have to make some sort of flexibility in what side he plays part of the discussion there.
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It'd for sure have to be part of the discussion. Personally I'd move Rielly and/or Dermott to the right side before him though. But yeah having too many lefties isn't a problem in my eyes. You want as many good defencemen as possible. Period.
 
Again this is just spitballing but if Gardiner comes back and when Dermott gets healthy it might be a situation where the Leafs could really buck convention and look to use the defense they do have to their advantage rather than trying to force it to look as much like the defense they'd like to have as possible.

Because assuming they have a top 5 of Barrie, Dermott, Gardiner, Muzzin and Rielly you're in a situation where you not only have too many LD's but regardless of how you distributed the sides you'd have three really good LD's who should all get real minutes. That said, you wouldn't have any one sort of Hedman or Burns-esque guy who would be getting 25-26 minutes a night.

So maybe get weird with it. Maybe you rotate partners on a regular basis? Get someone, whether it's Rielly or Gardiner or whoever, used to switching sides to facilitate that? Get it to the point where each of those five are getting 19-21 minutes a night on average?
 
Overlapping shifts with relatively positionless defense. One of Rielly, Muzzin, Gardiner, Barrie would always be on the ice and one partner is always fresh.
 
herman said:
Overlapping shifts with relatively positionless defense. One of Rielly, Muzzin, Gardiner, Barrie would always be on the ice and one partner is always fresh.
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We are going to disrupt the whole defensive hockey paradigm. We'll call it Dfns.
 
herman said:
Overlapping shifts with relatively positionless defense. One of Rielly, Muzzin, Gardiner, Barrie would always be on the ice and one partner is always fresh.
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Ball hockey rules when you have an odd amount of defencemen that game.
 
We can't afford Gardiner if we want to keep Muzzin and Barrie (and I'd prefer those two).

All our historical talk about having "so much cap space" next year is no longer valid.  We won't have a bunch of cap space next year.
 
After the Big-3 and JT, I can see them spending on D if it makes sense. Rielly has 3 years left. Sandin and Liljegren will be ELCs. Dermott will need a contract. There's still money left for someone to get paid, but it has to be a slam-dunk. Offers next year for Muzz and Barrie perhaps, Tyson more-so 'cause he's RHD. Additional D is where I see them spending those precious cap dollars moving forward. With two stellar #1-calibre lines and a competent goalie, that's enough to challenge for a Cup in this league. On a yearly basis as well because of the young age.

Core($$$$): Matthews/Tavares/Marner
Sub-core($$$): Rielly/Andersen/Additional D
Additional Scoring($$): Nylander/Kapanen/Johnsson
Support($): the rest

Cap-friendly more or less bears this frame-work already.
https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/mapleleafs
 
Again, I think the idea here is that if Gardiner comes back it would be cheap and short-term.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Again, I think the idea here is that if Gardiner comes back it would be cheap and short-term.
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Don't see that happening though from Gardiner's perspective. I guess we'll see though. Never expected all the moves Dubas has done so far.
 
I am really failing to understand why so many of you seem to be struggling with the concept of "if".
 
WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
I wonder if they consider walking from any award and giving the money to Gardiner.
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Part of me wonders that, too. It does seem strange that he hasn't signed yet. I'm sure there are teams offering him reasonable contracts in terms of salary, just not with the years he's hoping for - and, I'm sure he knows those deals aren't likely to get better the longer he waits. But, until Ceci officially files for arbitration or his QO expires, the Leafs basically have $4.3M in cap space they can't use right now.
 
If we don't think Ceci has any value at $4.3m for 1 year, why do we think Ottawa qualified him?

Just poor decision making?
 
Frank E said:
If we don't think Ceci has any value at $4.3m for 1 year, why do we think Ottawa qualified him?

Just poor decision making?
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Ottawa loooovvvesss/d Ceci. He was always the reason they pulled out of some bigger ticket trades if the rumours are to be believed.

But Ottawa('s owner) loves money more.

Never underestimate the allure of a big height + big TOI number for defensemen to some GMs.
 
Frank E said:
If we don't think Ceci has any value at $4.3m for 1 year, why do we think Ottawa qualified him?

Just poor decision making?
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Yes?

Or, you know, he has more value to a team like Ottawa at $4.3M for one year than he would as a UFA. They don't have cap issues, they're not reasonably expecting to contend next season, etc. They probably saw him as a potential trade deadline asset.
 
Frank E said:
If we don't think Ceci has any value at $4.3m for 1 year, why do we think Ottawa qualified him?

Just poor decision making?
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I don't know who the "we" there is but I think it's been more an issue of him at 4.3 represents bad value more than no value.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Frank E said:
If we don't think Ceci has any value at $4.3m for 1 year, why do we think Ottawa qualified him?

Just poor decision making?
Click to expand...

I don't know who the "we" there is but I think it's been more an issue of him at 4.3 represents bad value more than no value.
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I meant as trade capital.  If he signed his QO, could he be shipped out for a 12th round draft pick, and the Leafs re-allocate those cap dollars.
 
Nik the Trik said:
I am really failing to understand why so many of you seem to be struggling with the concept of "if".
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I am really failing to understand why you need to be a condescending asshole in practically every discussion you have.
 
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